Staff Directory

Brian McSparron, Commissioner

I am honored to be following in Sarge’s footsteps as I have great admiration for what Sarge has done for college hockey in the south. When Sarge and I coached at GT we talked about a vision for college athletes to continue playing this great sport. In his tenure as SEC commissioner Sarge has brought that vision of competitiveness among the SEC schools, a sense of SEC pride to college hockey, along with commitment and organization among the schools. Under Sarge’s leadership, SECHC has developed a great playoff atmosphere and has had teams compete very well in the ACHA National Championship tournament. These are trends I look to continue and grow upon.

Hockey is no longer just a northern sport. We have great players and great college programs in the south and I want to continue showing the rest of the ACHA that college hockey in the SEC is strong.

My goal is to brand the SEC as THE CONFERENCE for high school hockey players to come to and compete while getting a world class education. When I was in high school there wasn’t a lot of choices to play college hockey. There were programs in NY where I’m from, MN, MA, MI, your typical northern states. Now, college hockey can be played from all corners of the US. Students need to know that they have an opportunity to play college hockey and the ACHA and the SEC can fulfill these students dream to play at the collegiate level. This can be achieved by promoting our SEC schools their hockey program and building a story around the SECHC. The hope is one day soon, I would like to see one of our SEC schools win a national championship.

Justin B. Bradford, Director of Communications

An award-winning reporter, in 2013, Justin received the Silver Medal in the Best Sports Reporter Category for The Tennessean‘s Toast of Music City reader’s poll. In 2014 & 2015, Justin was voted as the Best Sports Reporter in Nashville. In 2014, PenaltyBoxRadio.com received the silver medal as Best Blog in Nashville. In 2015, the website received the award for Best Sports Blog in Music City. Bradford is also the host of Penalty Box Radio that airs on ESPN Nashville 102.5 The Game, and is credentialed by the Nashville Predators, the NHL (Draft & All Star Game), WCHA and CHL.

Justin is the author of “Nashville Predators: The Making of Smashville,” a book detailing the history of the Nashville Predators. He has been a member of USA Hockey for three years as an adult recreational player.